(A/N: I am not gonna lie; this chap was really hard to write! Anyway, enjoy!)

~Chapter Ten~

Under Wicked's reign, everything in the Grim Wreaker was dark. Of course, there were ribbons and bedazzled bat cutouts hanging from the walls, but none of her hard work could be seen due to the darkness. The six fugitives kept running. They had no idea where to, but between them there was a unified sense of getting somewhere, despite a lack of finish line. No one spoke real words, just noises. Delete gently shushed George when he chittered with excitement. Jackie squeaked when she felt Digit the Unidentified Insect brush against her ankle. Inez cried sharply when she tripped over her own feet, but once Matt's warm hand grasped around hers, she remained silent.

In an unexplainable amount of time, they all reached an archway in the distance with a faint glow peeking through. With extended arms poking from the shadows, Matt slowed them all to a crawl as they approached the entrance. As they got closer, they could make out a strange machine, shaped something like a souped up escape pod, working hard with the whirs and zaps it produced. When the light show died down, Digit pointed something out.

"Isn't that the Sunisphere?" he whispered dangerously.

Jackie squinted through the strange brew of dark and blinding light to make out the technical yellow orb sitting within the frightening machine.

"What is she doing to it?" she quavered.

The light and great noise from the machine died down, and the six quickly stole across the rest of dead space, pressing themselves against the molding of the entrance and peeking their noses out into the open air.

"A little tired today, are we?" a gruff voice was heard. Heavy steps preceded a portly cyborg, grease covering half his face, who opened a hatch door in the side of the machine, carefully pulling out the Sunisphere like a tray of hot muffins. Lumbering out of view only briefly, he returned with a lanky blue something slung over his shoulder. Starting with the feet, he carefully fed the body into the chamber until it sat upright upon the ledge, and then closed the hatch with a smack.

Jackie gasped uncontrollably at the someone.

"Glowla," she breathed.

It was true. The said performer was terribly unconscious, slacking like a wet noodle, but it was her.

"What the heck is going on here?" Matt demanded.

Just then, the uncomfortable whir started up again, and Glowla's energy began to radiate more than anyone had seen. The whole machine began to glow as she did, and then, through a spire coming from the top, a continuous crack of energy shot through the air and up to the ceiling.

"What are they doing to her?" Digit moaned, half covering his eyes with his wing fingers.

"We need to get that lug away from her if we wanna do anything," Inez pointed out.

"Ya mean the lug that stole our jobs!" Buzz corrected sourly.

For minutes the little rebellion could do nothing but simply stand and watch as the machine tortured their friend. Her head lolled in her unconscious state, emphasizing the helplessness on both ends of the spectrum.

They might as well have emptied a gallon of molasses by the time the strange machine decided to release its electric grip on Glowla. As the lug operator approached her, Digit weakly puffed up his chest and revealed himself from the dark hallway. Jackie tried to reach out for him, but simply squeaked and ducked further back away from the doorway.

"Pardon me, friend," the cyboid called out in a strangely friendly tone, "but what kinda hours is Wicked makin' you work? Just look at those circles under your eyes!"

The friends and partial enemies could hear the cyborg moan in response.

"When was the last time you got a good vacation? You know, if Wicked expects you to do a good job, she needs to learn to respect your needs!" Their voices began to move.

"Ugh, I don't think Miss Wicked knows how ta...respect..." The guard began to echo. Jackie and Matt both peeked out from their hiding space to see Digit leading the big lug down the hallway and into a corridor. He leaned behind his new companion's line of sight to give the Cybersquad a huge wink before disappearing.

"'Kay, c'mon, let's go!" Matt urged under his breath, already squeaking his running shoes against the floor.

"How does he do it?" Inez asked out loud.

The room was much bigger than it first seemed. The ceiling was high and the electric crack gave everything in it's path an eerie glow, making everyone who stood in its shadow want to stay there. The machine stirred and buzzed as it worked its unknown magic on Glowla, who could only sit there under her eyelids.

"Look!" Matt exclaimed. "Doctor Marbles!" He pointed over to the side, in a shadow the static glow wasn't able to reach, towards a large glass box where the Doctor sat inside, seemingly unharmed.

Jackie jumped over some long, thick cables to reach its side, and peered through the scum-dried glass. She held her breath as she watched for his.

"He's out cold!"

With a heated sigh, Matt ran his fingers through his red hair and stared at the ground. Wicked held nearly all the cards. Team Motherboard was up against a rock, and the hard place was coming in fast.

"Guys, look over there," Inez demanded. Her gaze turned all to the side of the room where the guard had been coming and going from. There stood more glass cages, similar to the one that held the Doctor. Some had simple ledges, one of which was open, and the rest contained pedestals and smaller padlocks.

"There's the Sunisphere!" Buzz cried, at the shock of everyone else.

"And the Good Vibrations from Shangri La!" Jackie recognized.

"And Zeus' lightning bolt!"

"And the Eye of Rom!"

The prized possessions of many other cybersites were present as well, all encased in glass capsules, waiting for their turn to be electrocuted.

"Why does Wicked need all of these anyway?" Matt asked, a look of a jabbed stomach cursing his face as he stared at Zeus' weapon.

Jackie looked back at Glowla, staring intently at the wavy pattern of her radiation, and then a light bulb went off behind her eyes.

"Wait a second...Wicked said that Hacker need a charge up so she decided to put the Sunisphere to work."

"That's it! Inez exclaimed, slapping her hands together. "All these items have the power to let the cybercitizens of those sites live the way they do. And Glowla radiates pure energy! Because of her spell, Wicked's using all of these things as generators just to keep Hacker functioning!"

"So that machine is a harvester..." Jackie discovered gravely. "...Well, we've gotta disable this thing if we're gonna save Glowla!"

"And the other cybersites, for that matter," Matt interjected.

"Okay, everybody just calm down; I've got to concentrate." Inez crouched down to the floor and rolled her weight against her slender shoulders, and finally her outstretched hands, glasses barely hanging onto her face. Due to her waistcoat, her blouse still kept relatively in place, but the hem of it did linger playfully below her bellybutton, which was enough to get Matt to shuffle his feet and sniff awkwardly. From her inverted position, she stared intently at the harvesting machine, nibbling on the inside of her mouth. "This thing's got to have a weak point."

"I hate to break it to you, Nezzie, but I don't think we have that kind of time." Matt had to force his gaze to lock with her eyes and not her abdomen."

"Don't call me 'Nezzie!'" she shrieked lowly, her face growing slightly red. "And unless you have a better idea, I'm staying down here!"

"Actually, I might...you see up there?" The redhead pointed up to the vaulted ceiling. "There's a little hole where the energy goes through. That's gotta be another room, or a vent or something."

"And stopping Hacker's recharge should be a priority," Jackie added.

"Okay, Inez and I will track down the connection." He wiggled the brunette's ankle in his hand, nearly causing her to topple. "C'mon, you."

If she didn't know better, she would have detected a smile in his voice. With a huff, she slowly lowered her limbs and glared at her fellow 'Squad member.

"And you have a plan, I hope, for 'stopping Hacker's recharge?'"

"Does everything need a plan for you to be happy?"

"No, but 'with plan' always tends to work better than 'without plan.'"

"Oh, really? And what do you propose, Miss Pedantic?"

"I highly doubt you even know that definition!"

The conversation increased in heat as the two slowly made their way out into the hall and down the other hallway. Jackie winced to herself.

"I worry about those tw-" When she realized that Digit wasn't at her side, she closed her mouth. "Right."

XXX

When the familiar glow caught his eye, Matt slammed his palm onto the doorjamb to catch himself, and reeled back to get a good look inside the room. Small and industrious, but serving its purpose. A thick hose sprouted from the floor, flashing with that same brightness he'd seen on the floor below. The hose contorted and split into at least five different ends that fed through the opposite wall; most likely Hacker 2.0 was standing on the other side.

"Inez, I found it!" he urged under his breath, worried Wicked might be able to hear.

The bespectacled woman reversed her head from the next door down, still a somewhat exasperated countenance gracing her eyes from their pointless argument, and followed Matt into the should-be closet. The redhead was already trying to pry the hose base from the tile.

"Matt!" she scolded, also in a whisper. Before she could detail, with an ungentle grunt, the tube popped right off of the floor, and Matt landed harshly on his backside. The crack of energy coming from Glowla's harvest shot through the air and hit against the shallow ceiling.

"What. Have. You. Done?" Inez demanded, crouching down to a squat to meet his blue eyes.

"Like it's doing any damage. And look!"

Matt nodded towards the bolt, which was now looking much less violent and actually starting to decrease in length. As it snaked back through the sizable hole in the floor, the two closed in on hands and knees, finally gazing down to see the peanut harvester and the insect Jackie. She waved and hopped a little, as if she needed to get their attention.

"I think Glowla's all sucked up!"

"Try and get her out of there. Is Didge back yet?"

"Not yet. I'm starting to worry about him."

"Don't worry, Jacks – he's gotten through worse..." Inez reassured, though not quite focused on her friend.

"We'll go ahead and head back down there – just don't crash anything, okay?" Matt winked.

"Yeah, yeah."

The redheaded young man pushed himself upright and headed for the door, with Inez following raggedly behind. But then, her eyes lit up in brilliance.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, forgetting volume control, and racing full speed back into the little room.

Matt whipped his head back for his partner in justice.

"What's it?" he called, jogging after her.

Inez threw her gaze behind her in return.

"That spire-"

She punctuated the sentence with a scream as gravity overtook her. In that one fleeting moment that Matt will remember perfectly for the rest of his life, he was no longer human, but simply a mass of adrenaline, strength, and passion. With almost a superhuman nature, he slid against the hard tile and reached out desperately with only one thought controlling his mind.

"Inez!"

She hung below him on one hand, while his other pressed deep into the tile, trying to keep himself from falling in as well. Her eyes were bright and dark all at once, large behind her lenses; a lost child. Matt desperately tried to pull up his arm, or at the very least bend it. His entity shook, but from the strain or his heart rate it was unclear.

"Matt?" she squeaked pathetically.

He acknowledged her with a gulp.

"Let go."